


say you'll remember me

by ithil_lome



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Gen, Not Really Character Death, Roleswap, Some Humor, and figure out who or what needs tagging, hopefully, how many craters would shun leave in the average tournament anyway, kind of, more tags and characters to appear as I write more chapters, probably, sorry yugo but someone had to disappear, team cape vs. team coat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23823307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ithil_lome/pseuds/ithil_lome
Summary: In the universe featured here events unfold in the expected fashion (or closely enough) up until Yugo’s dramatic arrival in Miami City’s Central Park. Yuto actually wins his duel with Yugo, and things spiral out from there.Featuring:Yuto, now back home in Heartland with extra questions and a not-quite-stolen D-wheel;Yugo, mysteriously vanished;Yuya, who really wishes people would stick around to answer questions after their exposition dumps;and Yuzu, annoyed her bracelet is making everything unnecessarily difficult.PLUS bonus legacy characters, because they're lots of fun! (and Arc-V needed more ZEXAL references anyway)
Relationships: Hiiragi Yuzu & Yuto, Yugo & Yuto, Yuto & Resistance members
Comments: 49
Kudos: 28





	1. look at you, look at me

**Author's Note:**

> This particular plot bunny has been bugging me on and off for two years now, and since I started watching Zexal it's only gotten more persistent (and recruited friends). This is my first time posting fanfic, actually, and I can't tell if I'm more excited or nervous.
> 
> I'm throwing this out there now before I lose my nerve, in hopes that someone besides me finds it entertaining!
> 
> Well, here goes.

There are a great many worlds out there, some so different you can only find common threads but most so similar there are only the most superficial of variations. But occasionally those tiny changes spiral and grow, creating very, very different results.

Consider one of these many universes. I imagine you know the one, it’s marked in the tags up above.

Now consider a different universe, one down and two to the right. It’s very nearly the same as the other, and ultimately it doesn't matter which flavour of yoghurt is Sora’s favourite, or whether Yuya’s goggles have the star on the left or right.

It nearly mattered when duel disks containing all the capabilities of a smartphone were developed, but that really only made an impact several universes further down.

No, here events unfold in the expected fashion (or closely enough) up until Yugo’s dramatic arrival in Miami City’s Central Park.

He spots his hated rival and challenges Yuto in his usual belligerent style, eager to finish their interrupted duel and crush him into the dust. Unwilling to back down from any of Academia’s duellists, Yuto accepts.

Neither says it, but missing friends are not far from their thoughts.

(If they had, well, maybe it would have turned out differently still).

This is where those tiny differences start to matter.

They duel, and soon enough light and dark dragons clash, and the will of the Supreme Dragon King shines through. Yuya, angry and horrified, rejects their destructive intent. “A duel isn’t something you use to hurt people,” he insists, “duelling should be used to make people smile!”.

Yuto hears him and remembers better times, when duelling for fun was all they’d ever known (remembers worse times, when his throat was hoarse from summoning and they’d still lost another friend). He wakes up.

\---

Yuto’s head is suddenly clear, and he’s not sure how long he was out of it but he’s afraid, Yuya is shouting, and Fusion’s pawn is staring him down with glowing green eyes and a terrifying smirk.

Honestly, Yuto would really like to know what the hell is happening right now.

Instead he goes to end his turn, seized with a sudden terror that he only has a few seconds left, he needs to stop this now before he loses himself again, he doesn't want to hurt anyone —

but he’s just lost his only lead, with Sora gone, and what if the pawn knows something, and maybe —

He’s just so sick of it all. Yuto wants to stop, he’s so tired, but if he wins it here, if he wins this duel — maybe this is the break they’ve been looking for. (And he doesn’t like to admit it, but maybe he’s also still ~~more than~~ a little angry, and sending the stupid pawn flying off his weird motorcycle is very very tempting).

Rather than call off the attack Yuto sends a supercharged lightning storm smashing through dragon and lifepoints alike.

\---

This couldn’t have happened back in the other universe, not with the way the duel played out there. But here, well, a card or two’s difference can change the course of any duel, and this one has more of an impact than most.

\---

Yugo comes to with a great crashing impact. Somehow he’s still on his d-wheel (and he really hopes nothing broke, that’s the last thing they need, Rin’s gonna be so mad) but he doesn’t need the flashing red display in his visor to tell him he’s lost, only the deciding blow is ever that powerful even if he can’t... quite remember how it happened.

Not that that matters! He’s still gonna get that stupid lookalike to tell him where Rin is!

But Yugo can barely summon his anger, his legs feel weird, his _head_ feels weird... and somehow he just knows that the duel isn’t the only thing that’s over.

He doesn’t — it can’t end this way! He has to — has to stop crying, tears aren’t going to help — _he hasn’t found Rin yet, dammit_ —

And there’s the kidnapping bastard leaning over him, calling him fusion AGAIN. His name is YUGO, is Rin really the only person who can get it right?

But there’s something wrong, he thinks, something... he was expecting more cackling, and the jerk doesn’t look smug at all. Just...sad. And tired.

Clear Wing roars from the card in his hand, and Yugo gets an idea.

\---

The pawn of Fusion’s lifepoints hit zero with a ringing double crash as he and his motorcycle fly into a gazebo pillar before crunching in a heap on the steps. Yuto doesn’t bother flinching before running up to him, barely aware of Yuya calling out.

Only before he can ask any of his questions he hears... muffled sobbing?

Yuto feels a great many things all at once listening to the pawn cry, none of them particularly comfortable or pleasant, and does his best to ignore them all.

Yanking the helmet off reveals the pawn is in fact crying, and now Yuto can make out words between hiccups: “Rin, Rin I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Rin”.

The only response he gets to his own demand is an angrily mumbled “...NAME is YUGO...Rin...” and. And that. Yugo is... his name? He... never has said anything about Academia, or called anyone XYZ trash, or...

Yuto’s crisis is derailed when something solid hits his arm, Fusion’s pawn — Yugo? — shoving a card at him. Too lost to feel properly surprised Yuto grabs it on reflex, absently noting the light spilling between his fingers, but doesn’t look away as Yugo meets his eyes and finally manages a clear sentence through his tears. “Give him to Rin, okay? Find her and tell her I’m, tell her I...”

Only then, instead of finishing his thought, Yugo sags against the ground with a sigh and — dissolves into light.

Yuto would really, really like to know what the hell is happening right now.

The park fades back into existence, not that Yuto noticed it was gone. He’s kneeling over the motorcycle holding a helmet, and Yugo really has somehow managed to vanish entirely.

Yuya might be saying something behind him, but a wave of vertigo sends him tipping forward over the bike, and the last thing Yuto sees is a flash of annoyingly familiar rose-pink light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic isn't projected to cover the entire show, and will stop a little ways into the Synchro arc unless the plot bunnies come up with enough extra material to keep it going longer.
> 
> Next chapter we meet the resistance, complete with additional Zexal characters!
> 
> I would really love any questions or comments you might have- typos I missed, things you liked, things you think might happen in future chapters, legacy characters it'd be cool to see, that sort of thing.  
> I'm also interested on feedback regarding the summary, since this is my first time writing one.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	2. empty streets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuto wakes up, but then he has to actually deal with everything that went down last night!  
> It's been an especially bad evening, on top of a bad month spent in a parallel dimension, on top of a terrible year living in the remains of his hometown after it got smashed and set on fire.
> 
> At least he has friends to share his confusion with!  
> And he gets a cool D-wheel out of it too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've added a whole bunch of extra tags, but they don't all apply to this chapter.  
> There are some OCs but they only exist to pad out the Resistance roster and won't play major roles.
> 
> Have fun spotting ZEXAL characters!
> 
> edit 9/8: changed mentions of the dimensional transfer gadget Yuto's using to hop dimensions to include use of a spell card instead of battery.

Yuto wakes up in a pile of rubble. This isn’t particularly remarkable, and in fact he’s lost count of how many times it’s happened, but since he can’t hear anything of interest he’s just going to stay put. He’s _earned_ a nap, even if he can’t quite recall why he’s so sure.

Despite this, barely five restless minutes have passed before Yuto starts trying to recall the events pre-rubble. He can’t have lost a duel, can he? He’s still alive, after all. But why would he be sprawled on a heap of ex-building if he’d won?

Clearly he’s in Heartland, the stench of the smog is very distinctive. He’d almost missed it back in Stand – Oh, that’s right. He and Shun were scouting in one of the other dimensions, looking for leverage in the fight against Academia.

Memories come crawling back, and if Yuto thought the last few weeks were weird they had _nothing_ on the night before. Ugh, his exhaustion just doubled remembering it. Lying here forever is incredibly tempting, but... he should probably get back to Maiami quick smart in case Academia decides to get involved after Sora’s report. No way is he leaving Shun to face that alone, especially not when Shun’s stuck with the still-extremely-suspicious Reiji Akaba.

Okay, so. Staying put is out of the question, comfortable though it might be. He could head back to Standard _right now_ with the dimension transfer program in his duel disk – but no, he's only got one more _Astral Jump_ card and getting stranded in the wrong dimension is a really bad idea.

That means stopping by the Resistance to grab a second copy. Well, it’ll be nice to see everyone again (if they’re still – no, don’t think about that) and after he finishes explaining the last month maybe they can even help answer some of his many, many questions. Then, once the card printer does its thing, he can go retrieve his best friend.

Nodding as decisively as he can while lying facedown in a heap of debris, Yuto ignores all his various aches and pains and prepares to haul himself upright. He manages to stand after only two false starts, then pulls his mask and goggles back over his face and sets off in search of a nice recognisable landmark to orient himself.

Yuto only makes it ten steps before being seized by the unshakeable knowledge that something is _wrong_. Pressing himself into the shadows under part of a trashed motorway he scans the surrounding buildings (or remains thereof), but there’s nothing to see and he still can’t hear anything unusual.

He lifts his foot to keep going, but he’s _forgotten_ something, he _**can’t leave it behind**_ – at last Yuto looks back at the rubble and realises it’s not all from buildings or the former overpass. No, that’s the fancy duelling motorbike ( _ **D-wheel!**_ ) that Yugo was driving. The itch in his bones fades as he walks back and drags it upright, picking the helmet up off the ground.

Well, it’s extremely cool: sleek, fast, crazy agile, _and_ you can duel on it! In short, it’s everything Yuto has ever dreamed of in a motorbike and more (even if he wouldn’t have chosen such a pale colour scheme). It would be a real shame to abandon it here, wouldn’t it? Clearly he should take it with him.

Yuto considers riding the D-wheel back but it’s not exactly subtle, and he doesn’t actually want to alert the Obelisk Force or scare anyone from the Resistance. No, better to stay out of sight and wheel it back to the base.

\---

Yuto has no way of knowing what happened back at the park. If he did this would make a lot more sense, given there’s no way Yugo would let Yuto abandon the fruits of his and Rin’s labour in a pile of rubble far from home.

Unfortunately for him, he’s just stuck with the knowledge he has to keep the D-wheel with him wherever he goes _or else_ .

\---

The trip back to the old duel school is almost restful, really, even if Yuto does have to keep a constant eye and ear out just in case. The walk takes nearly two hours through silent grey streets, then he’s climbing over a huge chunk of twisted steel and concrete to drop down into a hidden clearing down below. The trickiest part is making sure the D-wheel doesn’t get too badly dented on the way, but it’s sturdier than it looks.

“Wha- No way! Hey, Yuto!” A cloaked figure pops up out of nowhere and begins waving violently. Yuto doesn’t quite jump out of his skin at the shout, but it’s close thing after how quiet the city is, and the guard takes advantage of his distraction to pull him into a side hug with great enthusiasm.

“My bestest ghost buddy! It’s sure been a while. But, uh, weren’t you on a rescue mission? Looking for, you know, tall, purple and scary?”

“...Good to see you too, Sara.” Yuto says, carefully extracting himself. “I found Shun alright, but we got, well, separated... I’m just not sure what Shark has to do with it?”.

“Ha ha, very funny. Glad you’re back, though!” Sara resumes her post, laughing, as Yuto makes his way between massive chunks of debris toward the hole designated the ‘front door’.

Yuto smiles too: he wishes it was under better circumstances, but even if he’s still worried (about everything in general and Shun in particular) , it is nice to be back.

“Although! Now you mention Shark, is that why you picked up the ride? _I_ remember how you used to stare at that bike of his when you thought no-one was looking!”

...Yuto isn’t going to dignify that with a response. But something must’ve given him away regardless, since Sara upgrades to a rather impressive evil cackle as he pulls the D-wheel through behind him and walks into the base.

\---

The Resistance is primarily housed in the Spade Branch building, chosen for being both largely intact and fairly central. While they do maintain other hideouts in a variety of other locations like the old Duel Lodge or the Diamond Branch campus, Yuto’s school has been a hub ever since they first started reorganising after the invasion. It’s always weird walking through the same halls when everything else has changed; in some ways it’s a comfort, but mostly all he can see is the ways things aren’t like they should be.

Tucking the helmet more firmly under his arm, Yuto heads deeper into his old school.

A gaggle of cheering kids surrounds Fuuya in one of the two working duel courts. Rather than duelling he’s roped Tetsuo into helping tell an ESPer Robin story, with Tin Archduke and several members of the Robin family running around the field as bystanders help provide the dialogue. It started with just his fellow Acorn Branch duellists, but by now a good half the Resistance has joined in at some point. It’s a lot of fun whether you’re voicing or just watching, and Yuto’s Phantom Knights have appeared in a couple of different ‘episodes’.

The other court does have a duel ongoing, with Mina’s steampunk alchemists facing off against futuristic samurai. He doesn’t recognise his old classmate’s opponent, but based on their cheers the three loudest onlookers are his wife and kids.

Yuto passes Kotori and Cathy chatting as they carry buckets of water toward the kitchens. They wave as he goes by, but don’t stop to talk. Demia and the Tomato Guy (Yuto... doesn’t actually remember his name, but he’s sure he can’t be the only one) follow behind with armfuls of tins and a basket of vegetables.

Other Resistance members are scattered through the corridors and classrooms, many still masked or tucked up in protective cloaks from patrolling the city. Some talk, or read, or duel with the ancient mats unearthed from basement cupboards.

Academia might’ve destroyed their city, but the people of Heartland won’t be defeated so easily.

  
  


\---

  
  


Eventually Yuto reaches the old office co-opted as an impromptu ‘laboratory’ by the more technically inclined members of the Resistance. He makes his approach cautiously, wary of stray explosions; everyone in the Resistance has learned their lesson by now, courtesy of the Kozuki siblings, who definitely have more enthusiasm than sense.

Luckily for him there is no explosion _and_ no ominous smoke, unlike his last visit before leaving to chase after Shun. This might be because Anna isn’t in when he arrives, and instead a visiting Sayaka is nodding along to Allen as he grumbles about roller-boots being far more practical and cool than rocket-boots. Kaito and his assistant Orbital are further back, working at one of the computers, but he still looks up and greets Yuto as he enters.

Sayaka turns around next, interrupting Allen’s complaint about steering difficulties to shove a slightly-broken swivelly chair in Yuto’s direction. “Hi Yuto. Welcome back! Um, how was Standard?... Any leads on... ?”

As Sayaka trails off, looking nervous but hopeful, Allen puts down a hammer and launches a barrage of his own questions. “Hey Yuto. How was the trip? What was it like changing dimensions? Any problems with the program? Did Shun not want to say hi? Don’t mind Kaito, he’s just grumpy V rescheduled their meeting for tomorrow.”

V? Last Yuto heard he was holed up with his brothers and a couple of other scientists in Heartland’s most high-tech submarine, trying to find a way to reverse (or at least interrupt) the carding process. He’ll definitely have to ask how that’s going later.

“It’s good to be back. It was an... interesting trip, that’s for sure. But actually, Shun and I sort of, got separated. I need a second _Astral Jump_ so I can make a return trip.”

“Separated? Why come back alone?” Kaito takes the offered duel disk with a frown, looking it over briefly, then passes it to Orbital to deal with.

Yuto sits in the offered chair as he waits for the robot’s fussing to die down before replying, as it’s hard to get a word in edgewise when he gets going. “Well, not deliberately. I think Yuzu’s bracelet must’ve zapped me back?”

Kaito doesn’t audibly respond (his face is nevertheless a work of art), but Sayaka and Allen both question the ridiculous proclamation simultaneously.

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean? A _bracelet_?...Who’s Yuzu?”

“What the — How can a bracelet zap anyone anywhere?”

Perhaps, Yuto realises, he should have spent more of his walk thinking about how to properly explain the last month, and less time experimenting with how far he could get from the D-wheel (the result: not very).

  
  


\---

  
  


Yuto stops for a breather. “That’s the first bit. Any questions before we move on to the weird stuff?”

Kaito’s frown wavered in disbelief as he muttered “That _wasn’t_ the ‘weird stuff’?”, but Allen started talking before Yuto could explain his choice of descriptors.

(It would become fairly self-evident in a minute, anyway).

“Okay, so you’ve told us about the Professor’s kid, who Shun says knows about the war but is working against his dad, even if _some of us_ ” - Allen scowls as he gestures to himself and Kaito - “remain unconvinced. And the new summoning method, and the spy, who was at the other school and probably investigating Pendulum summoning.”

Yuto just nods in response, and Sayaka adjusts her glasses before taking up the thread. “Um, but, what does this have to do with you and Shun splitting up or a bracelet? You said Yuzu was at You-Show with pendulum guy – Yura? - and the spy, but...?”

Yuto closes his eyes for a moment, gathering strength, before launching into an account of the more bizarre aspects of his trip.

“Right, the first weird thing. Yuzu looks _exactly_ like Ruri. Shun and I both got them mixed up, that’s how identical, only Yuzu has pink hair and purple eyes. Hang on, pass my duel disk, I have a picture.”

The disk is produced, and with a few taps and swipes at the screen a picture pops up where the blade would be in a duel. There’s a girl standing in a stadium, winking, wearing a grey-and-white school uniform: and she does indeed look just like their missing friend. A silver bracelet gleams at her wrist, but it’s a rather delicate looking piece of jewellery, not any kind of mechanical device that might be capable of dimensional transferral.

There’s a brief silence as everyone digests this latest development (or tries to, at any rate). Yuto just hopes they won’t get stuck here, at the very tip of the ‘what the hell’ iceberg.

“You see, the bracelet there? I’ve met Yuzu a couple of times, and ended up nearby a few more, and every time, sooner or later, it makes a big pink flash. And when I can see again I’m _somewhere else_.”

“Somewhere... else?”

Yuto isn’t sure who’s questioning him, but he’s also not sure he cares. Unloading all this nonsense feels amazing, now he has an audience that can finally be as confused as him! He’d tried talking to Shun, but, well, his best friend hasn’t been great at the communication thing recently. Not to mention, there’s been a lot happen since they spoke on his way to confront Sora.

Come to think of it, wasn’t that only yesterday evening? Barely over what, twelve hours ago? Yikes. Feels like a lot longer.

“This is the first time I’ve ended up in another dimension, and I always stayed inside Maiami City, except the first time when I wound up down the coast. Honestly I have no idea why the bracelet is holding a grudge or how it does it’s thing, but given how baffled Yuzu looks it’s probably not her doing it.”

And why stop there? Yuto’s on a roll.

... Hopefully he doesn’t look too manic, but seriously, getting to inflict this on someone new is incredibly satisfying.

“And that’s weird things one and two. Weird thing three is Yuya. Not the way he pulled a whole new summoning method out of nowhere, complete with unique cards. Or, not just that. You see, Ruri _isn’t_ the only one with a mysterious doppelganger.” With that, Yuto swipes across a few more pictures to show someone caught mid-bow who looks nearly the same as him, except dressed in bright colours (with hair to match), beaming wider than Yuto ever has in his life.

“Weird thing four is his dragon, Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon. May or may not have been known as ‘Odd-Eyes Dragon’ before Pendulum summoning was a thing, depending on whether he had two monsters or one that magically changed name and type mid-duel. Honestly, the way things have been going I can’t rule that one out. He and Dark Rebellion roared at each other and generally acted really strange when we duelled briefly last night.”

And now the others are looking concerned for some reason? Yuto thought it was weird, but nothing to warrant the looks he’s getting. Well, he’d better finish explaining, right? Cutting off Allen and Kaito, he continues with the next person on his list.

“Weird thing five is Yugo! He’s the D-wheeler from Synchro, and he _also_ has the same face as me and Yuya! Plus I’m pretty sure he’s not actually from Academia at all, he just has a really unfortunate name. We duelled, and I... can’t actually remember what happened (I really hope I didn’t blank out again), but at the end everything went all shiny and he started crying, then he gave me his dragon, and he disappeared, and I disappeared, and I woke up near an old motorway on-ramp earlier this morning, and also now I have to take the D-wheel everywhere with me or I get a bad case of the itchy bones. Any questions?”

Someone takes the duel disk out of his hand and replaces it with a mug of water. Oh, it’s Sayaka. “Yuto. When’s the last time you slept?”

And that accusation is entirely unjustified given he only woke up a couple of hours ago! Rude.

Yuto explains this between gulps, but the other three just trade exasperated glances. Sayaka then adopts a fierce expression (the one that always surprises everyone, no matter how often she has to pull it out) and decrees he’s going to ‘finish his water, drink some soup, and _have a rest_ ’. And it’s not just her determined to make it happen either: based on the look on Allen’s face he’ll help Sayaka drag him to the cafeteria if he doesn’t walk fast enough on his own.

But before that: “Actually there’s one last thing, weird thing six. Yuya’s dad — the old duel champion who disappeared years ago – his name was Yusho Sakaki. An entertainment duellist who believed in duelling for smiles. Is it just a coincidence, or is he actually...?”

And with that, he reaches over and reclaims his disk to show one last photo of an old promotional poster. The cityscape and neon lights in the background might be unfamiliar, but all three Clover Branch students immediately recognise their missing teacher and his favourite magician.

  
  


\---

  
  


The debate over whether or not their teacher spent three years spying on them gets increasingly heated until Yuto, feeling quite regretful he brought it up at all, attempts to derail the accusations by asking about lunch.

Unfortunately for everyone this backfires as well, since the ‘discussion’ inevitably resumes as soon as they sit down, and quickly sucks in half the cafeteria's other occupants. Even those who never met Yusho, duelled one of his students, or attended one of his exhibitions find something to contribute.

A foodfight is narrowly avoided since no-one is actually willing to waste food, especially not with Kotori brandishing her ladle at them from the serving table.

After thoroughly dissecting every interaction anyone’s ever had with Yusho or his students and forcing Yuto to describe the You-Show duelling philosophy no less than three times (with examples) the various sides of the argument eventually decide he _probably_ wasn’t a Fusion plant.

Nobody who valued smiles and spreading happiness so highly could actually support Academia, could they? Even if he disappeared right when the invasion started? Even if he once worked with Leo Akaba?

The argument might have continued indefinitely if Anna hadn’t burst in with questions about the ‘motorcycle’ in the lab, more interested in finding out who brought it in and how fast it could go than actually stopping and listening to the ongoing debate.

\---

Yuto sits in the middle of the loudest disagreement ever to grace the cafeteria and regrets all his life decisions.

Then again, it’s not like he could just ignore the whole Yusho Sakaki issue, is it? He had to ask them sometime. Oh, if only the name really was a coincidence. Or just another case of inexplicably identical faces.

Come to think of it, if he’s here and Yuya’s in Standard and Yugo’s from Synchro (back in Synchro? Where did he go, anyway?) does that mean there’s an evil fusion lookalike too?

...What would an evil twin (quadruplet?) even look like? He and the others have messy or spiky hair, so... slicked back? Super straight?... Perhaps a goatee?

Anna makes an entrance with more drama than usual, never one to do things quietly if loudly is also an option. Busy internally snickering over the goatee, Yuto barely manages to reduce his startled jump to a massive twitch. Hopefully nobody else noticed. He should really pay more attention.

“I just finished upgrading Shinsou’s chair with rocket boosters! We were going to take it out for a spin, but doesn’t a race sound much more fun? SO, who does the sweet ride parked in the lab belong to?”

Still slightly shocked Yuto answered as honestly, if not as helpfully, as he can. “Technically Yugo.”

One of the many bystanders immediately asks exactly the wrong question. “What, Fusion? You mean you won it off Academia? Since when do they dri-”

“NO, not Fusion, _Yugo_.” But where did that anger come from? It’s a reasonable mistake, isn’t it?

“You stole the bike off your mystery lookalike?” Allen looks very impressed, but he’s also very wrong.

“It’s a _D-wheel_ , and no, of course I-”

Sayaka chips in next, raising her hand in an attempt to hide a rather mischievous smile. “Ruri did once mention you’ve always wanted a motorbike...”

“Yeah, and if he didn’t say you could have it it’s definitely stealing!” Allen finishes with a devastating blow.

Look, it’s not Yuto’s fault he ended up with it, it was definitely a fluke! Yes, so maybe he’s wanted one since the first time he and Yugo duelled, but that’s _not the point_ -

“Wait, what’s ‘D-wheel’ supposed to mean?”

“The D stands for duelling, since it has a duel disk built in. You use it for riding duels.” And Yuto knows he’s right, but when did he hear that? Come to think of it, how does he even know the name ‘D-wheel’? Yugo never said anything about it, did he?

Anna’s eyes go wide as her face lights up with glee. “Riding duels? Holy shit, that sounds awesome! We have to have one! Cannon vs D-wheel!” And with that, she brings her fist down on the table hard enough to rattle the crockery.

Oh no. This has Bad Idea written _all over it_. “... I thought you wanted a race?” Wrong response, wrong response, he doesn’t want to race either. Well, maybe he does, but, no. Not an option.

“Both, obviously! Both is better!”

“Won’t Academia notice? Neither of those sounds particularly subtle.” Thank you, random blue-haired stranger. Good to see someone has some sense-

“Ha, we’ll destroy them all! They don’t stand a chance!” Alas, Anna can’t be reasoned with so easily.

“Hey, excuse me?” Someone several tables away raises a hand in the air. “Can we backtrack a bit? What’s this about mystery lookalikes?”

“Yeah,” his friend supplies. “And this duelling motorcycle sounds like that one Pawn of Fusion you duelled a while back? Are you sure he won’t hunt you down to retrieve his bike?”

Oh dear. Yuto really doesn’t want to explain all this again. Can’t he just have that rest Sayaka mentioned?

Kaito finally enters the conversation, only to immediately throw Yuto under the bus. (He won’t forget this, Kaito, _just you wait_ ). “Maybe you should explain what happened on your trip again. And elaborate on the whole ‘he burst into tears and gave me his dragon then disappeared’ part.”

Yuto looks around at his extremely excited audience, each giving off the distinct impression of someone holding a big bucket of popcorn in anticipation, and does the most sensible thing he can: he makes a break for the door.

Well. He tries, anyway.

(To his credit, he does manage to get a whole table away before being mercilessly dragged back for storytime.)

(And by the end of the day the tale of ‘that one time Yuto went to another dimension, picked a fight with his mysterious doppelganger and stole his bike’ has gone down in Resistance legend.)

  
  


  
  


  
  


BONUS SCENE:

“Wait, Shun entered a tournament? Oh no. How... how many craters?”

“He _might_ have levelled an entire city block.”

“WHAT?!?!”

“Don’t worry, it was only real solid vision, nothing was actually broken – well, unless you count the building that fell on his opponent.”

“Oh, that’s a reli – _what_?”

“We knock buildings over on the Obelisk Force all the time! Oh, don’t make that face, Yuto, you know it’s true.”

  
  


OTHER BONUS SCENE:

“Well, at least it won’t be hard to tell Yuto and Yuya apart, you just have to see which of them has the spikier hair.”

“Or who’s wearing the most black!”

“Yeah, if they’re noticeably smiling it’s probably not Yuto.”

“... I hate you all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this chapter really ran away on me. Some of it practically wrote itself, while the rest just wouldn't cooperate at all.
> 
> The camera and photo display functions of Duel Disks are extrapolated from ep1, where Yuya and Strong use a video chat feature to trash talk from opposite ends of the action field. 
> 
> My OCs are created to expand the cast of the resistance a little, since this bit is set before Academia's big attack so there should be way more people around. None of them are actually that significant, although I do intend to reuse some of the same people multiple times.  
> Sara, the only OC to get a speaking part, was actually created for a bonus scene a few chapters from now but I decided to introduce her a little early. She was at Clover with Yuto, Shun and Ruri, and uses a ghost-themed deck, hence the 'ghost buddies'.  
> Mina is also an OC but her opponent isn't quite: he's the husband/father of the three refugees introduced in ep100! Some comments in that episode imply they used to be with the Resistance before the attack, so I thought it would be fun to throw them in.  
> Demia and Shinsou are also OCs, but everyone else is from ZEXAL! 
> 
> On a similar note, the show only mentions the Clover and Spade branches at Heartland Duel School, but given how big Heartland is I've added a few more. This chapter names Diamond and Acorn, but others include Bell, Cup, Rose, Leaf, Gold, Sword and Shield.  
> Fun fact: They're all named after suits in different decks of playing cards so they'd match! Heart is the Central Administration, and not a teaching school like the rest.
> 
> If you're interested in learning more about my OCs for whatever reason, or want to know more about the ZEXAL cameos, or have any other questions/comments I'd love to hear them!
> 
> To anyone trying to estimate my update schedule:  
> This was posted five weeks after the previous chapter, the average time between chapters is currently five weeks.


	3. fun and games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuto might not have meant to wind up back home, but he's enjoying being back, not that he can stay long. He wants to get back to Standard as fast as possible, but alas things never do go according to plan.  
> Including some fun and games (of the Heartland variety) followed by more fun and games (of the Academia variety), as well as an introduction to spontaneous card generation!  
> But the real question remains: will Yuto remain strong in his allegiance, or succumb to the siren call of sleeved vestments?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now featuring the full chapter! Part one, as previously posted August 10th, finishes with a reference to the old classic 'Never Gonna Give You Up' if you want to skip straight to the new stuff. I did edit that part, but not a lot.
> 
> Please note I've made a small change to Yuto's dimension hopping tech so he's using a spell card like everyone else. I've decided to call the card created in the XYZ dimension 'Astral Jump' (to go with Standard 'Dimension Mover' and Fusion 'Violet Flash').  
> The previous chapter was fixed back in August, but I'm leaving the note in.
> 
> Warning for canon-typical violence thanks to the Obelisk Force making an appearance.

After a while the questions about other dimensions peter out and the crowd moves on to other topics for discussion, finally letting Yuto fade out of the centre of attention and into the background. Sitting and listening to speculations on what other people’s dimensional counterparts might be like ‘since that’s apparently a thing that happens now’ is actually pretty entertaining, even if he hasn’t actually seen any familiar faces besides Yuya, Yuzu and Yugo.

The plots to raid Standard for various ‘luxury’ goods are a little more alarming, especially since he made sure to pass on Shun’s warning that LDS has cameras on every corner, and they absolutely do not need anyone to get arrested for stealing. (They don’t even exist in any of Maiami City’s databases, so how would they deal with that anyway? Interdimensional jailbreak?)

Yuto can’t exactly comment on that one though, since they all know he had no money and needed to eat somehow. Yes, he managed not to get caught, but not everyone’s as stealthy as him. And yes, he had been planning to bring back as much as he could carry before his unexpected return, but dedicated raiding parties still seem rather risky.

The empty Skittles packets stuffed in his pockets crinkle in a remarkably accusative fashion for inanimate green plastic. (He’s going to have to throw those out carefully if he wants to avoid even more awkward questions about not sharing).

Allen, Anna and Kaito wander back to the lab for the afternoon, and Yuto nearly goes with them in case they decide to pull the D-wheel apart to see what makes it tick. They promise not to touch it, though, and even if Yuto’s pretty sure they will he _does_ trust them not to go dismantling it entirely, so he stays in the cafeteria a little longer and resolutely ignores the itch telling him he has to go back.

  
  


\---

  
  


Yuto’s plans to ‘lurk in the corner enjoying not being alone’ are quickly derailed by an intense debate over how ‘Wormhole Xtreme’ should have ended if the Academia hadn’t arrived halfway through the season, followed by half-a-dozen increasingly enthusiastic rounds of Articulate.

In the end Yuto doesn’t go back to check on the card printer until well after dinner, only to get told he has to get a good night’s sleep and wait until morning before he can zap back to Standard. Allen claims this is because it won’t be done before midnight, but Yuto has his suspicions.

Instead he checks over the D-wheel despite not knowing what he’s looking for, and makes his way to the old duel arena with the tents housing the vast majority of the Resistance.

It’s been a while, but Yuto successfully navigates the labyrinth of near-identical tents and ducks inside the one he shares with Shun and Ruri. It’s been too empty ever since she disappeared, but now it’s even worse without Shun either.

Clicking on the duel disk torch, Yuto debates the merits of sleeping with his shoes on and pretends he isn’t avoiding the box in the corner. It’s silly, he knows, especially since he needs to at least put his tie and choker away if he doesn’t want to get strangled in his sleep (once was enough), but, well. Yuto eventually decides to keep his shoes, just in case, and shuffles over.

The cardboard box has what must be the last surviving hardcopy of Ruri’s commemorative ‘Third anniversary of Yuto admitting we’re friends’ photo taped to the top; featuring a beaming Ruri holding Yuto and Shun captive so Sayaka could take the shot. Yuto marvels over how much happier they used to be, and flips the box open. He quickly undoes his tie and folds it around the studs he uses to hold his cape in place, putting them both on top of his spare shirt. His choker and bracelets follow, then his goggles, mask, and finally the resistance-red tie from his left elbow.

With the small items tucked away, Yuto curls up in his sleeping bag (silver with tiny Gagaga Magicians) and wonders, not for the first time, why he didn’t take it with him when he left. Unlike those other times, he’s glad he left it behind, since otherwise it would be stuck in the rafters of the warehouse by the docks and he’d have to borrow someone else’s (probably Shun’s since he left his behind as well).

Tomorrow, he resolves. Tomorrow he’s going to go back, and track down Shun, and then they’re going to make some actual progress toward finding Ruri. Yuto clicks the light off, yawns, then tries to go to sleep.

  
  


\---

  
  


Yuto wakes up and takes a few minutes to meditate on the inevitability of getting up to face the day. Then it occurs to him that, since he’s back home, he can wear his spare change of clothes. The prospect of clothes he hasn’t been wearing for a month straight lends him the strength to lurch up and flip the storage box open before any second thoughts can weaken his resolve. The spare pants and shirt are identical to his other ones, but maybe he’ll wear his nice waistcoat instead of the tie.

\---

The end of the world as they knew it has sparked a drastic change in nearly everyone’s wardrobe – there are no rules besides protective facegear and nobody cares what you’re wearing as long as it’s something you can run around and duel in. Nearly 60% of the Resistance has a cape they wear on the regular, and most of the others are in dramatic coats instead. Yuto’s hardly alone in wearing things previously reserved for special occasions, although it could be argued that any occasion you’re not trapped in a card is special these days. Kaito is, of course, winner of the award for ‘Most Dramatic Wardrobe Change’. Haruto even made him a medal.

\---

There’s hardly anyone out and about, but a quick check of his duel disk’s clock reveals it’s barely 5am. Yuto skips the canteen and heads straight for the lab instead, deciding he might as well make the most of his unexpectedly early start. Unlike the corridors there’s actually someone there already, and although she leaps aside and shoves her hands behind her back as he comes through the door it’s pretty obvious what she was up to.

“Uh, hi, Yuto. Fancy seeing you here. I was just-” Mina tries to fabricate an excuse only to get interrupted by the helmet dropping to the floor behind her. “Oops. Just looking at the, uh, D-cycle you brought back. It’s pretty cool, I can see why you nabbed it. So, how might someone else go about, say, acquiring one themselves?”

Not another one, Yuto internally laments, didn’t he cover this yesterday? “I didn’t take the D-wheel, it ended up here by coincidence. And I have no idea where Yugo got it.”

“Mm-hmm. Coincidence, absolutely,” Mina gives Yuto a knowing look and extremely unsubtle wink. (Why does no-one believe him?)

“Anyway, I just got back from pylon duty, so what brings you here at such an obnoxiously early hour?”

“Oh, you got the phones back up and running?” Now he thinks of it, messaging was down yesterday when he tried to call ahead after waking up back here. Academia keeps knocking out their communications systems, but Mina, Anna, and a few of their friends have made it their mission to patch it up nearly as fast as the Obelisk Force can break it.

“Almost, me and Takashi have been out since three, took over from Shinsou and Anna. That rocket chair really is something, like, _wow_. Still, I would only ride it if you paid me.”

Mina goes to continue, but stops in surprise when their pockets simultaneously light up like tiny suns. They each pull out their duel disk and glimpse the screen flashing red and white before the speakers blast out a maximum volume “HEART BURNING!!!”

Yuto manages to hang on to his duel disk despite the sudden assault to his senses, but Mina drops hers on her foot as she clamps both hands over her ears. Eyes wide in pain, she mumbles her favourite swears under her breath and curls into a ball of misery on the floor, trying to clutch her ears and toes simultaneously.

“Ooh, when I get my hands on whoever picked the alert tone I’m gonna – Oh Numbers. No, that’s the, that alarm – Hey Yuto, tell me I’m wrong, that isn’t –”

But alas, that alarm only has one use and they all know it. Yuto can actually feel the blood drain from his face as he looks up from the emergency broadcast on his duel disk. “Yeah. Academia’s coming. Well. Not just coming, they’re... nearly here. Immediate evacuation.”

Mina picks herself up off the floor, wincing. “Holy shit. If they’d come any other time in the last day, if they’d been any earlier – Wow. Good thing we just got the duel disk transmission system back online, huh? Any runners they sent wouldn’t have made it in time.” She laughs nervously, brushing down the tails of her coat. “So, what team are you on? I’m on stalling, so front lines it is, I guess.”

“I was on escort duty, but my group got reassigned when I left the dimension, just in case. I’ll... join you, I suppose, haven’t been back long enough to get added back in the emergency plan.” Honestly, Yuto is so over the whole fighting thing, but the one thing he hates more than duelling Academia is watching people he cares about get hurt, so.

(Also Academia doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and kills anyone who doesn’t at least try to fight back. There’s that too.)

“Makes sense. Time to meet up with everyone else, then. You sure you can’t duel with the D-cycle? Because that would be _awesome_.” Mina looks less shaky, which is just as well given the speed they’re going down the hallway. The D-wheel doesn’t even slow them down as they go, wheeling along like it’s never heard of friction.

“Can’t, there’s nowhere to put my deck.” And that’s a real shame, honestly. Yugo had that weird gauntlet, right? If Yuto can get his hands on one of those sometime...

  
  


(They all knew this was coming, sooner or later, but it’s been so long since the last major raid. It's just as well they never let their guard down far enough to drop the surveillance on Academia’s base of operations, really.

It’s incredibly galling though, to think they can sneak watchers close enough to keep an eye on troop movements, yet not mount a counter-attack and drive the invaders out of their home. They just don’t have enough duellists to keep up against endless gangs of deck-stackers _and_ guard non-combatants back here at the same time, and there’s not a single member of the Resistance who isn’t incredibly bitter over that fact.)

\---

This instance of the ‘Giant Raid’ is later than average (as counted among worlds suitably similar for comparative purposes) by nearly three weeks. The postponement is here caused by an unlikely sequence of events involving a collapsing gymnasium, ill-advised Ra Yellow shenanigans, three overly peckish mice, one very persistent cat, the Hell Kaiser himself, a rogue Jinzo, and a batch of extremely suspect lasagne.

This delay is only surpassed by the world four down and three behind, in which an extremely talented (and lucky) group of Resistance hackers arranged for every speaker in the Academia encampment to play nothing but ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ on repeat for three days straight.

\---

The corridors are a hive of activity, bleary-eyed duellists rushing to and fro as they begin the emergency procedures at the crack of dawn, but somehow the two of them make it through to the second Duel Arena without running anyone down. They aren’t the first to arrive despite already having been up and about already when the alarm went off, but it’s not too surprising given how many people have lost all vestiges of what might be considered a ‘normal’ sleep schedule.

The Kamishiro twins are already there, along with a few other duellists crazy enough to throw themselves straight at the Academia forces and buy everyone else a chance to get the hell out of dodge. Anna turns up, infamous cannon in tow, right after Yuto and Mina get in the door. She’s looking awfully perky for someone who was out wrangling signal towers into compliance barely two hours ago and can’t have slept since.

More people trickle in over the next few minutes, several with shirts inside out or lopsided capes, one hopping on one foot and attempting to stuff a boot on the other simultaneously.

The D-wheel gets a few funny looks, but Anna just tells the first person who asks that they’re going to ‘have a ten-pin bowling contest, see who can knock out the most invaders’. There’s some nervous laughter, but no further questions.

Shark points out that a motorcycle is actually a very useful asset, but this just gets Rio to laugh and call for ‘a moment of silence for our dearly departed Sharkmobile’ in between chortles.

This gets a good laugh out of all the rest of the assembled duellists except Shark (who’s too busy pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation). He is, however, smirking a moment later when he gives his rousing pre-battle speech.

  
  


\---

  
  


The D-wheel handles like a dream, and Yuto marvels over how smooth and intuitive it is to ride, even when he has to stop to duel. Unfortunately it’s the only easy thing about the whole battle.

No matter where he rides there’s always more Obelisk Force troops ducking around corners and leaping over rubble, laughing as they go.

Time stretches and stutters from moment to moment: here he opens a trap and calls up a burst of ghostly flame, there his opponent slips on ice and smacks right into a fellow blue uniform.

Rainbow light scatters about from Dark Requiem’s stained-glass wings and shines across frozen city blocks left in what must be Rio’s wake. Huge trains and huger airships loom through the dust and smoke. Fury and horror twist through his chest and catch in his lungs as Yuto drives through the carnage.

Somewhere in the not-too-far distance a Chaos Giant keels over, half-melted by a gout of iridescent starfire. A shadow that might be Kaito and Orbital soars away from the mess.

Yuto rolls to a halt, trying desperately to hang on to his temper, clear his head and focus.

  
  


(He’d raced out of the base alongside Anna back at the start, being the only one able to keep up with her flying cannon, but promptly lost her somewhere in between pulverising variously sized metal hounds.

Sometime after that – not too long, Yuto assumes – he’d wound up near Gauche and Droite. After _that_ he’d seen soccer players, maybe, and some sort of floral spacecraft. Then there were bright fairies, and colourful puddings, and giggling spectres. What he hasn’t seen is birds, and he can’t quite stop looking for them even though he knows neither of his best friends is even in the right dimension.)

  
  


It’s impossible to keep track of anyone for long, what with all the fires and dust and falling buildings, the screaming metal and screaming duellists, and the laughing (always the laughing, coming in clear as anything even through his borrowed helmet —) and the horrifyingly frequent bursts of awful violet light.

It’s the light Yuto hates the most.

  
  


And in the end Yuto’s faltering grip on his temper fails.

Enough is enough, he _isn’t go_ _ **ing to leT T**_ _ **HE**_ _ **M GET AWAY WITH THIS**_ **—**

  
  


Yugo dreams of racing someone (Rin?), each with their own D-wheel, laughing into the wind. But then they dart ahead even though he calls after her (no Rin don’t –), then they turn a corner and... they’re gone. He chases, because what else can he do, only to slowly realise this isn’t home at all.

The commons might be rundown and full of sadistic security officers, but not like this. Because Yugo remembers the stifling dust and crumbling buildings, he’s been here before and he never wanted to come back _ever_ _again_. People are disappearing in flashes of that same purple light that’s haunted him since Rin was taken, or shaking in terror as their friends get stolen out from under their noses – how can they, how dare – Yugo _isn’t go_ _ **ing to leT T**_ _ **HE**_ _ **M GET AWAY WITH THIS**_ **—**

  
  


\- — #

the world spins and flexes, and a boy finds himself alone in a void of stars

no, not a void: there’s a mirror

(but something about his reflection...)

a breeze picks up as the stars flare brighter

his cape flutters as he reaches out, pale jacket seeming to glow in the dark

(is he wearing bracelets or gloves...?)

and for a heartbeat he meets his own eyes

(but are they really –)

then he’s falling forward

– _but there’s nothing there **–**_

there is no glass

no hand

he _falls_

% @ $

Unseeing grey eyes blink once, twice, as a white-hot light begins to kindle in their depths.

The approaching Obelisk Force trio halts, before starting to back away. Only one is smart enough to turn and run.

He still doesn’t make it.

  
  


# = -

  
  


-

\--

\---

  
  


Yuto’s sitting in an old railway station, but he could’ve sworn that he was busy duelling just a second ago. How’d he end up here? Oh wait, there’s someone talking. The blue bowl-cut is familiar but Yuto can’t quite remember who...

First things first. “What happened?” Yuto asks

“That was going to be my question”, blue-hair says. “What do you remember?”

Well, he’d duelled a lot of Obelisk Force. But after that —

~~Light and dark dragons roar their defiance to the heavens, lightning flashing as the gale picks up~~

— Nope, nothing. Except - “I might’ve... I think I summoned Clear Wing Synchro Dragon somehow? That’s about it though.”

“I see. To summarise: Between the D-wheel and the dragons you cut quite the impressive swath in the Academian forces, however you seemed to be in pain and failed to respond to your surroundings when not engaged in a duel. Upon V convincing you there was no need to continue fighting you collapsed, so we carried you out of the way and we’ve been waiting for you to wake up ever since.”

Yuto doesn’t see who chips in next. “Hey, Takashi, you forgot the creepy glowing eyes!”

...Oh. _Oh_. This is bad, this is very bad, Yuto _hates_ hearing about what he’s done when he blanks out like that. Honestly he’d hoped it stopped, given how long it’s been since last time, but this sounds worse if it lasted past the end of a duel! What if next time –

But before Yuto can spiral too far he gets interrupted by something far more urgent: _**he doesn’t know where** _ _**his** _ _**D-wheel is** _. He tunes back into the outside world and starts examining the station. Blue-hair (Takashi?) is facing two more people a little way down the platform, one a mysterious figure swathed in burgundy from top to toe and the other wearing an honest-to-goodness trench coat and fedora like she fell out of an old spy movie.

“Yeah, it was very impressive, V just started him down and told him to stop and it _worked_. I guess he has had the practice, promises of destruction and scary faces must be old hat what with IV and all,” says Spy-movie.

“Right, right, that makes sense, but you really shouldn’t underestimate III. I was _there_ when he stabbed that Kaiser guy with the sword on a stolen duel disk, okay, they’re all just... like that.”

Yuto’s seen IV demolish entire squads of various Fusion troops before, and Burgundy isn’t wrong. Aha! _There’s_ the D-wheel, propped up at the end of his bench, and his mask stuffed into the helmet beside it.

Pulling himself upright takes less effort than he expected, which is nice. Just as Yuto grabs the handlebars Takashi speaks up again. “Come on, everyone else is further inside.”

So why did they leave him out here...?

Spy-movie shrugs, saying “Nothing personal, we just didn’t want to push the D-wheel any more. That thing’s heavy, you know?”

Yeah, okay, that is an entirely understandable reason. Yuto leaves the two of them on watch and follows Takashi past an old ticket booth, deeper into the bowels of the station.

\---

They arrive in some sort of meeting room, with a long table and wall-mounted television screen. Inside there’s a variety of Resistance members in various stages of ‘collapsed’ and ‘asleep’, including a large pile with what looks like enough limbs for three to five people snoring gently in a corner.

Takashi heads straight for Rio, the most awake person in the room (although it should be noted this is not a high standard) and the two hug as Yuto goes to prop the D-wheel against the wall.

  
  


(“...Glad you made it.”

“Yeah, same, definitely”

“Have you seen my brother? We got split up after driving off the Tyler sisters...”

“Unfortunately not. But I can’t imagine he didn’t make it out.”)

  
  


“You’re looking better too, Yuto, without all that darkness and pain... I wish I could see where it was coming from. Although those dragons...”

Wait, what’s she saying about his dragons? Before he quite realises it, Yuto’s covering his deck, partly turned away to shield it from view. Pink eyes seem to bore through him, and he freezes in place. She looks away as Takashi asks a question, though, and Yuto finally resumes breathing.

“Speaking of dragons, I thought you said Synchro summons require a tuner monster. Did you pick one up in Standard?”

“Yeah, nah, same deck as always. But then how did...” With a last wary glance at the two of them, Yuto plops down in one of the chairs and begins shuffling through his deck while Takashi and Rio talk. Soon he relaxes, settled by the faint hiss of ghostly flames and metallic plates echoing in his cards.

And then he reaches a monster he doesn’t recognise, an ornate shield supported by shadowy armour and wreathed in cyan flames. It definitely _looks_ like one of his Phantom Knights, and the name checks out, but Yuto doesn’t think he remembers seeing _The Phantom Knights of Ebon Targe_ in his deck before. It’s a level four DARK monster, listed as Warrior/Tuner/Effect, which on the one hand explains a lot but on the other makes _no sense at all_.

“Well”, Rio says, “It’s been a long day and it’s, like, barely noon. Best get some shuteye now before Academia starts trying to figure out where we all scattered to.”

Yuto sighs. “I was hoping to get back to Standard, but... I guess that isn’t an option now. Hopefully Shun doesn’t do anything too reckless without me.”

Rio and Takashi aren’t the only ones to raise an eyebrow at that, and they have a point, but he can dream, right?

“You know, that’s a good point. We’re going to need everyone we can get, so come back as quickly as you can, got it?”

Rio smiles as she pulls out a spell card and holds it out for Yuto to see.“Is that an _Astral Jump_? Did you know we’d wind up in the same place or something?”

“Or something, yeah. It’s like we told you when you left, we’re 90% sure the actual dimension-travel part is safe, it’s just that your destination on the end is a total unknown and there’s no way to talk across dimensions. Some of us volunteered to carry a couple of these anyway, in case of emergency, and... report back if we can.

“I expect we’ll get more interest since you proved it does actually work, but there’s still a limit to how many we can print, especially now... anyway, you can have this after you sit down and rest a bit. No use hopping dimensions while we’re this tired if you don’t have to.”

Yuto’s getting sick of people telling him to get some sleep. Sure he’s always tired, but so is everyone these days, right? Besides, he was just unconscious, and is that not the definition of having slept?

“She’s right,” says someone from under the table. “Besides, the floor is surprisingly comfortable!”

No, it doesn’t matter, Yuto has places to be. He tries to tell them as much, but he only manages a truly enormous yawn. He considers standing, but doesn’t actually have the energy to move.

...looks like that’s that.

Yuto slouches deeper in the chair and stares vaguely at the table, thoughts churning sluggishly.

  
  


\---

  
  


Someone taps Yuto on the shoulder, causing him to jerk sideways so hard he nearly falls out of his chair.

“Uh, whoops. Sorry ‘bout that,” they say as he swivels around to stare at them. “Just thought we’d give you this now, before we forgot and you left without it.”

Their friend in the Kaiba cosplay speaks up next. “We saw you duelling on the D-wheel, you know, before, and your cape nearly strangled you when you turned a corner suddenly. Plus that’s totally a visibility hazard!”

“Not to mention this is probably warmer if you’re driving fast,” continues the first speaker, who Yuto can now see is wearing an elaborate flared jacket that looks almost like a dress over galaxy tights.

Of course this distracts him just long enough to miss seeing where the mysterious bundle being shoved under his nose comes from.

The dark grey fabric unfolds to reveal a sturdy jacket with many pockets and dark blue panels down the sides. Yuto holds it up a moment, weighing up his options. He loves his cape a lot, but they’re right about it being a bad match for D-wheel riding. He can’t leave the machine behind, and there’s no way he’s going to keep pushing it places if driving is an option, so... looks like he’s switching out.

His audience remains surprisingly silent as Yuto unclips his cape fasteners and folds it up, only to high-five and start cheering when he puts an arm through the first sleeve. There’s way to much noise for only two people, though, and he looks up just as a number of other coat-clad Resistance members begin chanting “One of us! _One of us!_ ONE OF US!”

Kaiba just shrugs at Yuto’s disbelief. “Coats are superior! One by one we shall bring enlightenment to all!”

“Is this. Is this some kind of cult...?”

“Don’t be silly,” says Galaxy, “Just think of the benefits. Pockets for everyone, am I right?”

A couple of he additional spectators appear to be dancing. Yuto seriously considers going back to his trusty cape.

“And here, Rio said to give this to you if you woke up first.” Galaxy starts fishing around in several of their pockets before triumphantly revealing the _Astral_ _Jump_ card.

Spell and cape in hand, Yuto steps over to the D-wheel, hesitates a moment, and kneels down beside the back wheel. Logic dictates there’s a storage compartment somewhere, it’s just a matter of findi - “Aha, there we go,” and reveals a second pink and white helmet stashed away. There’s just enough room to tuck his cape inside.

There’s no reason to delay leaving, is there? Time to find Shun.

Yuto unhooks the other helmet from the handlebars, settles it over his hair, and swings one leg over the D-wheel.

“Guess I’m off then.” And with that, he feeds the spell card into his duel disk.

The world glitches out as gravity forgets which way it’s meant to be pulling. It feels a lot like going extremely fast while also remaining absolutely stationary, and just as Yuto starts wondering if he’s going to get stuck after all it spits him out somewhere glittery and white.

Staring incredulously at the iced-over city around him, Yuto mumbles “I’d better not be lost in the Shadow Realm.”

  
  


  
  


BONUS SCENE:

“Okay everyone, show of hands: who agrees Yuto is probably possessed?”

“yff’re sittnn on m’andssss”

“nnng... wha...?”

“Maybe ask when we - ow ow stop, my hair - ”

“uhg, sorry”

“cn ooo’ver attis mmmv’eir foot -”

“I’m trying to sleep here!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Voila, the full chapter at last! Honestly I might've been better off doing this as two chapters but it didn't flow right and I was never happy with the cutoff, so here we are.
> 
> Canon never gives us much about the Resistance despite spending 50 episodes convincing us they're going to be relevant so this is part of my ongoing attempt to flesh it out a bit. There was initially a heavier focus on the invasion, but the plot bunnies were more interested in figuring out why Yuto and Shun were the only XYZ dimension travellers despite them having both the technology and motivation to leave Heartland. 
> 
> I had fun making up outfits for various Resistance members. I talked about how a lot of them decided there wasn't a good reason not to wear whatever they liked in the first part, so I figured I'd better include some descriptions! The whole cape vs coat was inspired by a throwaway line in that earlier section too, but I think it turned out well. Trying to make them seem more like real people, you know? memes and all.  
> I also had fun picking monsters to reference. Most of them actually do exist, and appeared in ZEXAL at some point. In case anyone was wondering, the Kurosaki siblings aren't the only ones to have bird monsters, Yuto just didn't see anyone else summoning them.  
> Regarding III stabbing Ryou with a Duel Disk blade-sword: he hasn't stabbed anyone in ZEXAL that I recall but did once chuck a sword with what sure looked like every intent of impaling Yuma's latest opponent at one point so I figure this is reasonably in-character. 
> 
> Yuto's outfit change was originally just going to be the waistcoat (thought I'd mix it up a bit) but then I started thinking about the D-wheel more and the last bit with the jacket practically wrote itself. The more I thought about it the more I liked it! The only downsides are a) I can't picture what the jacket would actually look like (lol) and b) now his colour scheme doesn't match his monsters so well anymore :(
> 
> Hopefully The Phantom Knights of Ebon Targe sounds like a plausible tuner monster for Yuto to end up with? I didn't want to go too long with describing the monster so it's a little generic sounding. 'Ebon' is just an overly fancy descriptor for 'dark' and 'targe' is a kind of shield. It's L4 so it's good for summoning both dragons!  
> Designing more dragons for later is trickier, since Dark Rebellion and Clear Wing both have amazing designs so their combination has to be really good. Odd Eyes Rebellion Dragon is very awesome, but I was disappointed in Odd Eyes Wing Dragon, so hopefully Dark Rebellion Wing Dragon follows the former's example rather than the latter when he appears! (I have come up with a description for the tentatively-named Dark Rebellion Calamity Dragon but they won't appear until much much later no matter how pleased I am with the results).
> 
> I kept joking about Yuto's love of motorbikes so I knew that ridiculous machine of Shark's had to feature somewhere. (Akari is proof that regular shaped ones did exist in ZEXAL, so what was up with that, anyway?) I can't tell if the stolen D-wheel gag is getting old or not, so maybe I'd better give it a rest?
> 
> Part 1 was posted 10 weeks after the previous chapter. The full chapter was posted 10 weeks after that. Average time between postings is currently a little over 8 weeks, or approximately two months.  
> Three cheers for real-life obligations! Maybe I'll start posting faster someday. Chapter two was nearly twice as long as chapter one, and this one is nearly twice as long as chapter two, which is a very worrying trend.
> 
> Next chapter includes what's been happening in Maiami while Yuto was out, but I haven't quite sorted out the details out yet, so if there's someone you'd like to see feel free to let me know! (Shun and Yuzu will definitely appear).  
> I might also include bits in Synchro or Fusion if people are interested and the plot bunnies cooperate.  
> (now I just have to figure out how Yuya wins his fight without Dark Rebellion...)


	4. A/N

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previous chapter now updated!

I've finally finished writing chapter three! Only took another ten week, haha. ha. Three cheers for writer's block, plot bunnies that insist on giant new scenes, and starting work!

This chapter exists since I'm not sure if subscribers get emailed if I update an old chapter or only when I post a new one. My original plan was to delete the old ch3 and post the completed version as a new replacement chapter but I didn't want to lost my comments so here we are. I am going to have to delete this one though, or I'd be stuck in a cycle of updates that say 'previous chapter updated!' and that's less than ideal.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you soonish to reveal what's been going on in Maiami City while we were away!


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